This invention relates to an apparatus and method for isolating certain parts of a person's hair from other parts of that person's hair to be treated with hair waving, straightening, bleaching, or dyeing material.
Certain hair treatment procedures require the protective shielding or isolation of specific portions of the hair from the rest of a person's hair. For example, in a conventional hair curling process, the hair is wound or rolled onto winding rods or hair curlers and a cold waving solution is then applied to the hair after it has been wound on the curlers. The solution is allowed to set and the hair is then unwound from the curlers to complete the process. After several months of repeated applications of such cold waving solutions, the hair can become brittle and frizzy. It is, therefore, desirable to isolate previously treated hair when curling other portions of the hair. The separation of the previously treated hair sections from those which are to be treated has heretofore been a tedious and time consuming operation which is accomplished by placing impermeable sheets of material about the hair to be protected by isolation from the hair to be treated.
Hair straightening, hair frosting and reverse hair frosting are other hair treatment procedures in which it is important to protect certain portions of the hair from treatment materials used on other portions of the hair.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,943,946 issued Mar. 16, 1976 to Gallegos and U.S. Pat. No. 3,960,156 issued June 1, 1976 to Thompson each disclose the use of an impermeable sheet of plastic or the like for protecting certain sections of hair while chemically treating other portions of the hair. The encasement of the portions of hair to be protected within the impermeable sheets requires a lot of time and talent, which is expensive. The effectiveness of the prior art apparatus and methods for protecting certain portions of the hair depends in large amount on the skill of the stylist and are often ineffective to the detriment of the hair and it's appearance.